An exhibition in the heart of Rome, at Palazzo Braschi in Piazza Navona until 19 August, celebrates the 250th anniversary of the death of the Venetian artist Giovanni Antonio Canal known to most as Canaletto, presenting the largest group of works ever exhibited in Italy to the public , 68 paintings, drawings and documents, including some of his most famous masterpieces.
Canaletto is one of the artists who most marked the European artistic eighteenth century: his pictorial genius revolutionized the genre of veduta ‒ considered secondary until then.
The exhibition "Canaletto 1697-1768", promoted by the Department of Cultural Growth of Rome Capital - Capitoline Superintendency with the organization of the MetaMorfosi Cultural Association in collaboration with Zètema Progetto Cultura was curated by Bożena Anna Kowalczyk.
The works on display come from some of the most important museums in the world, including the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Jacquemart-André in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, the National Gallery in London and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. There are also some works kept in the British collections and others from the US museums in Boston, Kansas City and Cincinnati. Among the Italian museums present in the exhibition with their works: the Castello Sforzesco in Milan; the Royal Museums of Turin; the Giorgio Cini Foundation. Institute for Theater and Melodrama and the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice; the Borghese Gallery and the National Ancient Art Galleries Palazzo Barberini in Rome.
Among the masterpieces on display, two works from the Pinacoteca Gianni and Marella Agnelli in Turin are the most representative: The Grand Canal from the north, towards the Rialto bridge, and The Grand Canal with Santa Maria della Carità, exhibited for the first time together with the manuscript of the State Library of Lucca which illustrates the circumstances of the commission and of the realization.
